No matter what the Yankees do to A-Rod, he's already been cut... by Hollywood

Oh, well, that's show biz...

The director of an animated Yankee fairy tale, "Henry and Me," tells Variety the cold-hearted story of deleting Alex Rodriguez from the script. 

Barrett Esposito enlisted the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Richard Gere, Paul Simon (as the voice of Thurman Munson) and a bunch of current and former Yankees to tell the story of a dying kid's love for the Bombers. The cast of characters runs from the Babe to the Captain - but A-Rod, who had already dubbed in his voice-overs, won't make it to the silver screen.

Says Esposito: 

"That was a decision that was made by the studio. The A-Rod thing was unfortunate. We dealt with him on two different occasions on this film. He came into the voice-over booth twice. And he was very giving of his time, and was a super nice guy. We had a great time working with him. But I think whoever ended up deciding to cut him from the film it was because we just didn’t want the distraction. It’s a movie about empowering children, and I think it sends the wrong message.

A-Rod was replaced in the film by Hideki Matsui. It’s not as if that character is the hero of the film, but he’s certainly the hero of his sequence. And I don’t think that we wanted to put it out there into the world “here’s this film about hope, here’s this film about life affirmation,” and then have a person who’s actually had done some bad decision making. We just didn’t want to glorify him and send that message. I think that’s what was behind that decision.

If I remember correctly, the humiliation of being dropped from the flick turned up in A-Rod's short-lived lawsuit against the Yankees and MLB. 

So much for Hollywood. So much for Cooperstown. 

Aside from the money and the hookers, it must suck to be Alex Rodriguez these days, having every old friend who sees you suddenly turn and run the other way. The media is relentless, anybody with a phone will chase him down, and his relatives claim he pees on their floor. If the guy doesn't hit for us, things will go nuclear - fast. (Which is why I think he WILL hit.)